{
  "full": "\n**EDMOND ROSTAND. CYRANO DE BERGERAC. 1929–1973. (ML 154)**  \n\n#### 174.1a. First printing (1929)  \n\n[within double rules] CYRANO | DE BERGERAC | [rule] | BY | EDMOND ROSTAND | [rule] | TRANSLATED BY | BRIAN HOOKER | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | CLAYTON HAMILTON | [rule] | [torchbearer B] | [rule] | THE MODERN LIBRARY | PUBLISHERS : NEW YORK  \n\nPp. [i–viii] ix–xix [xx], [1–2] 3–322 [323–324]. [1–10]16 [11]12  \n\n[i] half title; [ii] pub. note D5; [iii] title; [iv] *Copyright,* 1923, *by* HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY | [short double rule] | *First Modern Library Edition* | 1929; [v] dedication; [vi] acts of the play; [vii] THE PERSONS; [viii] blank; ix–xix PREFACE signed p. xix: CLAYTON HAMILTON | NEW YORK CITY: OCTOBER, 1923; [xx] blank; [1] part title: THE FIRST ACT | A PERFORMANCE AT THE HÔTEL DE | BOURGOGNE; [2] blank; 3–322 text; [323–324] blank.  \n\n*Jacket* *A:* Uniform typographic jacket D. (*Spring 1929*)  \n\n*Jacket B:* Pictorial jacket on blue paper with inset illustration of Cyrano seated while a kneeling Roxane holds his hand, without borders. (*Spring?1929*)  \n\n*Jacket C:* Pictorial in deep blue (179) and black on cream paper with inset illustration of Cyrano seated while a kneeling Roxane holds his hand; lettering in black, borders in deep blue. (*Spring 1930*)  \n\n> Front flap: 
 Who can withhold a tear for Cyrano de Bergerac as he hides his preposterous nose in the darkness and lets his lyric utterances win the fair Roxane for the handsome but mute Christian de Neuvillette? Who has not been moved to pity by the romantic posturings of the unerring swordsman, this understudy knight of chivalry and ghost-writing maker of sonorous ballades? All the fine bravura of Edmond Rostand’s swaggering drama, all its poetical extravagance and glamor are here in Brian Hooker’s famous translation. (*Fall 1933*)  \n\nHooker translation originally published by Henry Holt & Co., 1923. ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published March 1929. *WR* 27 April 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1973/74.  \n\nThe Holt plates were too large for the ML’s format, so the ML reset the text and made new plates for its edition. The ML paid Holt royalties of 10 cents a copy, but Holt agreed to contribute to the cost of the new plates by accepting reduced royalties of 8 cents a copy on the first 30,000 copies. The ML paid Holt a \\$3,400 advance in December 1928 against royalties on the first 40,000 copies at this sliding scale.  \n\nIn 1936 Holt considered bringing out a school edition of *Cyrano de Bergerac* at an educational discount, and Richard Thornton, the president of Holt, asked Cerf if the ML would object. Klopfer expressed concern that it would interfere with ML sales to college bookstores, but he acknowledged that Holt had the right to do as it wished. “I’m merely putting in this feeble squawk to see if I can’t get you to change your mind.” Thornton assured Klopfer that the proposed edition was aimed at high schools and wouldn’t affect the college market. “I would not have proposed such a volume if I had felt it would have any serious effect on your own book” (Thornton to Cerf, 17 June 1936; Klopfer to Thornton, 18 June 1936; Thornton to Klopfer, 19 June 1936).  \n\n*Cyrano de Bergerac* ranked low in the second quarter of ML sales during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943. It was the tenth best-selling ML title during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952. Sales may have been stimulated by the 1950 film starring Jose Ferrer.  \n\n#### 174.1b. Title page reset (c. 1940)  \n\nCYRANO | DE BERGERAC | BY | EDMOND ROSTAND | TRANSLATED BY | BRIAN HOOKER | INTRODUCTION BY | CLAYTON HAMILTON | [torchbearer D4] | [rule] | THE MODERN LIBRARY · NEW YORK | [rule]  \n\nPp. [i–viii] ix–xix [xx], [1–2] 3–322 [323–332]. [1–11]16. Contents as 174.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY; [323–328] ML list; [329–330] ML Giants list; [331–332] blank. (*Spring 1944*)  \n\n*Jacket:* Pictorial in vivid reddish orange (34), medium gray (265) and black on coated white paper depicting Cyrano preparing to draw his sword with lettering in vivid reddish orange; spine panel in vivid reddish orange. \n\n> Front flap as 174.1a. (*Spring 1944*)  \n\n#### 174.2. Text reset (1953/54) \n\nCyrano de Bergerac | BY EDMOND ROSTAND | TRANSLATED BY BRIAN HOOKER | INTRODUCTION BY CLAYTON HAMILTON | [torchbearer D8] | THE MODERN LIBRARY  \n\nPp. [i–viii] ix–xix [xx], 1–300. [1–10]16  \n\n[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] *Copyright, 1923, by Henry Holt and Company* | *Copyright, 1951, by Doris C. Hooker*; [v] dedication; [vi] acts of the play; [vii] THE PERSONS; [viii] blank; ix–xix PREFACE signed p. xix: CLAYTON HAMILTON | *New York City: October, 1923.*; [xx] blank; 1–300 text.  \n\n*Jacket* *A:* As 174.1b. (*Spring 1956*)  \n\n*Jacket B:* As jacket A except strong purplish red (255) instead of vivid reddish orange. (*Spring 1963*)  \n\nJacques Le Clercq, whose translations of Rabelais’s *Gargantua and Pantagruel* (G66) and Dumas’s *Three Musketeers* (153.2) were published in the ML in 1944 and 1950, indicated in 1953 that he was working a rhymed verse translation of *Cyrano de Bergerac* and inquired if the ML would be interested in it. He commented, “Of course, the Hooker job is superb. However, it does not render Rostand’s complete text and, though a perfect transposition, nevertheless lacks the bravura quality that was inherent in Rostand.” Commins replied that the ML couldn’t consider changing the translation, which had “established itself as standard for many college courses” (Le Clercq to Saxe Commins, 4 February 1953; Commins to Le Clercq, 10 February 1953; Commins Papers, Box 5, Princeton University Library). Le Clercq’s translation of *Cyrano de Bergerac* does not appear to have been published.  \n\nBy 1953 the ML’s plates were badly worn and Klopfer declared the ML edition “a disgrace.” He wrote Holt that he wanted to keep *Cyrano* in the series but that new plates had to be made. He suggested that Holt accept a 6-cent royalty on the first 25,000 copies printed from new plates, after which the rate would revert to 10 cents a copy. This time Holt declined to share the cost of new plates (Klopfer to Alfred C. Edwards, Holt, 6 May 1953; William E. Buckley, Holt, to Klopfer, 22 May 1953). The ML appears to have reset the text at its own expense. By the mid-1960s the ML was paying royalties of 5 cents a copy.  \n\n",
  "id": "174",
  "year": "1929",
  "label": "EDMOND ROSTAND. CYRANO DE BERGERAC. 1929–1973. (ML 154)",
  "author": "EDMOND ROSTAND",
  "title": "CYRANO DE BERGERAC.",
  "date": "1929–1973.",
  "something": "ML 154",
  "revisions": [],
  "type": "book"
}